06 August 2009

Pollution Gives Us Stupid Kids

It's not like cities and towns around the world lack science or stats regarding the benefits of working towards increasing the number of citizens who ride bicycles. You can't swing a Brompton around by the saddle without hitting a pile of studies and research.

Nevertheless, here's one more that we'll tirelessly broadcast across the internet in the vain hope that people will wake up and smell the liveable urban landscape.

It's not THAT surprising to read that pollution in cities has nasty effects on public health. Now, however, it turns out that it can knock points off of the IQs of children. 4.5 points to be precise. Researchers have found that the hydrocarbons from traffic can lower a child's IQ by the age of three. The hydrocarbons have much the same effect as lead, stunting mental development.

7 comments:

I don't know much about hydrocarbons in that respect, but it's proven that lead caused (and still causes) stupidity, especially for children. Well, as far as I learned, toxic substances are replaced but just by other toxic substances which are not yet forbidden (or not yet investigated enough). It only helps to decrease exposure altogether.

I wish people would trust what they see in front of them. My kids are stupid whenever they have to spend much time in a car, and it ain't just the hydrocarbons. It is the same when they spend too much time in front of the TV or computer. The human body was meant to work, and every time we introduce something that allows us to use our bodies less, it turns out to be a not so great thing. If we are going to have machines do our farming, clothes washing and cooking then we have to get away from machines carrying us up the stairs and moving us from place to place. There is really no way around it.

The sad consequence of this and similar effects is the hordes of folks moving out to the suburbs to provide fresh air to kids and then regularly emitting a bit of shit in the city centre during their motorized commute.

Kilometres cycled by Copenhageners so far today

Copenhagenize.com is the blog of Copenhagenize Design Company. Online since 2007 and highlighting the cycling life in Copenhagen and around the world.

40 years ago Copenhagen was just as car-clogged as anywhere else but now 41% of the population arriving at work or education do so on bicycles, from all over the Metro area. 55% of Copenhageners themselves use bicycles each day. They all use over 1000 km of bicycle lanes in Greater Copenhagen for their journeys. Copenhagenizing is possible anywhere.